


Red Shift

by RunawayDeviant



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Jim may or may not be the most functional psychopath in the galaxy, Khan's blood be trippin', The Author Regrets Nothing And Yet Everything, what have I spawned here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-28
Updated: 2013-08-28
Packaged: 2017-12-24 22:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/945333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunawayDeviant/pseuds/RunawayDeviant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a hop, skip and a jump between consciousness and madness for Jim; it always has been. It's just that this time, he's taking everyone with him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Shift

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't a funny fic, just so you know. Just... It's not angsty or anything either. I have no idea how to put this in a genre box...  
> Enjoy, though!

Bones is the first one he takes.

He has to be. Bones is the doctor; he knows better than Jim ever will how to infect a large group with something.

It takes three weeks for Jim to be able to move well, and then he asks Bones to show him the formula that saved his life. Bones agrees to show him and its three seconds after the vial is presented that he's unconscious and Jim is filling a hypospray with the stuff. He sneaks them back to his room in the hospital, injects Bones and a day later the doctor wakes with the same manic light in his eyes that Jim had had to hide before.

* * *

 

Chekov is next. It could've been any of the senior officers, but Chekov still has that tiny little bit of hero-worship left in him, despite everything that's happened.

Bones works out a means of delivering the serum through ingestion and Jim invites the ensign out to lunch with all the rest of the officers. The young Russian man's drink is laced with the stuff, and by the time he wakes up in the morning he's already having odd thoughts. By midday he's feeling like he could single-handedly lift a hovercar, and by evening Jim and Bones are discussing their plans with him.

* * *

 

It's Chekov's job to recruit Sulu – by any means necessary. All he really has to do is invite his friend over for drinks, and the deed is done. The slower diffusion resulting from ingesting rather than injecting the serum means that it takes longer to effect the change, but when it does Chekov calls his seniors.

From there, they plan how to take the rest of the Enterprise.

* * *

 

It happens in stages.

Scotty is brought in board next, because they want the people in charge of their engines to have _their_ interests in mind. After him comes all of his staff, and to all of their great relief and joy it seems that Bones easily lives up to his reputation as one of the best doctor's in the 'Fleet. No one dies, as had happened back when the Eugenics program had been initialised, and soon doses become tailored to people's specifics to optimise the change.

Best of all, he figures out a way to make the serum compatible with people of varying species.

"Dosage and strength are simple," he says to Jim as they plan their next move, "Its negative reactions with antibodies and blood-type incompatibilities that you have to look out for."

"You are the best," Jim replies with a grin, "and you're my favourite."

Then he suggests that they begin on the Security personnel next, because the only other Vulcan to remain an active member of Starfleet is there. Their end goal is Spock, but knowing how Vulcan physiology, which the hybrid favours, will react is helpful.

Bones agrees, and they summon Sulu to help them get underway.

* * *

 

The Vulcan – Satel – dies a week after he receives the serum. It sends the un-converted crew into a panic because _they have the blood of one of the few remaining Vulcans on their hands_ and the converted crew because _how are they going to convert Spock now_?

Satel, as it turns out, was barren and felt little connection with his people, hence his presence aboard their ship. Spock tells this to Jim in confidence, but agrees that the crew should know that they have not diminished the Vulcan gene pool by allowing the man to die of a deadly rogue strain of Ankaran flu.

After Bones does a "check" and assures the ship at large that the flu is no longer onboard, they continue on their way. They all mourn the loss.

It is one year into their five year voyage.

* * *

 

By their third year, most of the crew is converted. They hide it well, because they are still fundamentally _themselves_. They have the same memories, the same mannerisms, the same feelings.

When Jim had first changed, he had warred with himself for a time before realising that truth. He was still Jim Kirk, the idiot captain from Iowa who had saved Earth – and possibly the Federation – twice in two years. He realised quickly that he didn't _want_ to make the entire universe better – he just wanted that for his crew.

He makes a point to know every individual person on his ship. He speaks to them, he knows their hopes and dreams (except for Satel, who had been the consummate tight-lipped Vulcan) and he laughs and cries with them. He is all the captain that Pike had wanted him to be, and he is more.

And he is going to make his crew more, too.

* * *

 

By the middle of the fourth, year, they think themselves ready.

Uhura is with them now, has been for two months. They plan and wait. They refuse to find and experiment on another Vulcan, because they don't want to burden the already hurting population further. But they want Spock, and Jim _has to have Spock_ so they are going to get him, even if they can only have him with words.

Then, the evening before their plan is to be executed, Jim receives a message so heavily encrypted that he wonders if it's even meant for him at all.

After almost a whole night of hard work from their Communications staff, the message is revealed.

"Greetings, Jim," Spock Prime says, a gentle and highly un-Vulcan-like smile gracing his features, "By now I am sure that you have at least begun, and possibly finished, the process of making your crew into the true best of the best."

Jim's brain – much faster and more efficient – stutters to a halt and he has to pause the video for a moment while he collects himself. The only thing keeping him panic is the fact that the Spock on the screen has that glint in his eye, the one that everyone on board has been hiding from their own Spock for a long time now.

"The method by which you came into having Khan's blood may not be the same," Spock continues when Jim resumes watching, "but I imagine the results have been. The most expedient method to converting my other self into everything he was ever meant to be is in a file which I have attached to this message. I am sure that Doctor McCoy will easily decipher it and get to work synthesising it."

The old Vulcan inclined his head slightly and then said, "It is good to know that, though our destinies have diverged, there are some things that remain the same. Live long and prosper, Jim."

The message ends. Jim takes a moment and then nearly snaps a PADD in his haste to grab it and copy the attachment over. He's on his feet and tearing down the hall to Bones' quarters so fast that he almost knocks his own Spock off his feet as he passes.

He slides into Bones' living room and, as soon as the door slides shut, says, "I have the answer!"

* * *

 

They decide to try and convince Spock the old-fashioned way anyway, because Jim wants to and Spock is Jim's friend. If Bones wasn't already holding the position, he could easily be his _best_ friend.

Jim explains everything to Spock on the bridge the next day. The entire ship listens in, the conversation being broadcast to every comm. unit and PADD onboard. They wait with bated breath for Spock's reply.

"I would follow you, and this crew, to the furthest reaches of the universe, Captain," Spock replies with great sincerity, "and if this is the path I must tread to do so, then I shall."

The ship itself seems to breathe a sigh of relief.

Jim and Spock lead a large procession to the sickbay, then, and Spock spends two hours unconscious before waking with that wonderful glint.

"Fascinating," he says, and Jim laughs.

* * *

 

Their five years comes to an end and they return to Earth. It is there that everything unravels. Bones may be in charge of their medical examinations on the Enterprise, and Nurse Chapel takes care of him in turn, but on _Earth_ he has to be examined by another doctor.

All it takes is one scan and they are fleeing into deep space, taking what they can and leaving everything that they had loved behind.

But Jim doesn't mind so much and, talking to his crew as he always has, he realises that they don't either. Because while Earth has condemned them for their conversions, they are a family. The only one they will ever need.

* * *

 

History is doomed to repeat itself, and those alive to witness it in the making are but puppets pulled along by the eddies of time. Jim forever treads unknown paths, but no one on his crew would ever dream of not following him into the darkness.


End file.
